1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a vacuum cooking apparatus and a cooking method using the vacuum cooking apparatus, and more particularly, to a vacuum cooking apparatus and cooking method using the vacuum cooking apparatus, which perform cold storage, thawing, cooking, and warming functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a cooking apparatus using microwaves is a device that generates microwaves to oscillate water molecules within food, and cooks the food using friction between the water molecules due to the oscillation, when a user places the food in a cooking cavity, selects a cooking type and a cooking time, and then presses a start button. In the cooking apparatus, an intensity of the microwaves, generated by a magnetron, is determined according to characteristics of food to be cooked.
That is, because factors, such as a material and a shape of food placed in the cooking cavity, determine an absorption rate of the microwaves and an intensity of energy, the cooking apparatus using the microwaves performs cooking after checking cooking information on food, which is input by the user.
A conventional cooking apparatus using microwaves includes a body, a cooking cavity to cook food, and an electrical component area to accommodate various electrical components therein, with the body, the cooking cavity, and the electrical component area partitioned by a plurality of panels.
The cooking cavity is selectively opened and closed by a door, and a cooking tray is seated on a center portion of a bottom of the cooking cavity to hold the food during cooking.
Further, in the electrical component area, there are various devices, such as a magnetron to generate the microwaves, which radiate onto the food placed in the cooking cavity. A cooling fan is installed to prevent overheating of the electrical components.
On a front of the electrical component area, there is an input unit provided with a plurality of operational buttons, to allow the user to input cooking conditions just before cooking.
A microcomputer, which is used to control a cooking operation of the cooking apparatus, controls a suitable cooking function based on the cooking information input through the input unit.
Meanwhile, in the case where food is seated on the cooking tray in the cooking cavity, a cooking function is selected by the input unit, and then the food is cooked. The food may be cooked after the cooking information is collected in such a way that cooking conditions, such as a weight or a state of the food, are input by the user, or are measured by a variety of sensors mounted in the cooking apparatus.
Generally, in the cooking apparatus using the microwaves, cooking times and cooking methods according to weights or other information are prestored with respect to various types of foods, and cooking is performed based on the weights or other information.
For example, if a pop corn cooking function, is selected by the user, information on whether a weight of popcorn is large or small is input by the user, and the microcomputer of the cooking apparatus performs suitable cooking depending on the weight information received through a control panel at the time of pop corn cooking. As another example, if a thawing function is selected, information on a type of food to be thawed (such as information indicating whether the food to be thawed is meat, fish or another food) is input by the user, and then the cooking function is performed according to the input information.
For the cooking apparatus using the microwaves, if the food is stored in a refrigerator in a frozen state, the user takes out the food from the refrigerator, places the food in the cooking apparatus to be thawed, and then inputs cooking conditions (a cooking time, a food type, etc.) to perform the cooking. Further, the user consumes the cooked food after the cooking has been completed, and places the remaining food in the refrigerator again, to store the remaining food therein.
As described above, the conventional cooking apparatus is problematic in that, to perform cooking, the user must move the food stored in the refrigerator into the cooking apparatus immediately before the cooking starts. On the other hand, the user must move cooked food into the refrigerator to store the cooked food in the refrigerator, in case the user does not immediately consume the cooked food after the cooking has been completed.
Moreover, the conventional cooking apparatus is problematic in that the user must wait for a long time in the case of food requiring a long time to cook.